2023 Liberty Evolv 90 W

The 2023 Liberty Evolv 90 W is a fantastic choice for ladies who love ripping around the whole mountain. It’s a crowded field of skis in the 88-90 mm range, and there are a whole lot of good options. The Liberty Evolv 90 W stands out mostly because of the construction, but there’s also some interesting things with shaping that make it unique and totally interesting. Built with Liberty’s VMT 3.0 construction, the skis get a blend of poplar, bamboo, and paulownia wood, with three vertical metal stringers sandwiched between the poplar. This gives the ski its strength and stability, while the paulownia and bamboo create a light, energetic, and unique feel. The addition of the third strut was new for last year, and it brings the overall performance of the Evolv 90 W to the next level. With minimal taper shape and rocker profile, these skis have more of an on-trail personality than some of the others with more of a freeride influence in a narrower shape—these Evolv 90 W’s stand on their own.

Kristi Brown was on the 165, and she noted that it was short for her. She gave the ski all 3’s across the board, which sometimes means that it does everything a little bit good, and other times, not so much. Kristi notes that the Evolv 90 W in the 165 has a “Slight personality disorder…the Evolv 90 W skis well if you can find and engage the sweet spot. I needed to either force the entry of turn edge hold or just brush over and slide into edge hold under foot making the ski mode pivot the turn then actually carve entire front to back of ski. Love the graphics! It is best for a rising skier still sliding turns with edge hold underfoot.”

Also on the 165, Lexi Hildreth notes that it’s true to size, and scored the ski a top mark of 5 out of 5 for stability. 4’s are the next up for flotation, quickness, maneuverability, torsional stiffness, edge hold, versatility, and overall impression. While we did have beautiful and sunny testing weather, the snow was on the spring-like side for sure, so we didn’t get that true mid-winter snow, and Lexi has some feelings about that: “Would love to try this ski on a packed-powder day. It’s an awesome all-mountain ski that’s best for advanced intermediates to advanced skiers. Nice and stable!” With that third metal strut, we are seeing a new level of stability in this ski, and it makes a lot of sense for that upper-level skier, especially with the more flexible and lighter paulownia in the core. Allison Kozar was a fan of her 165 cm test length, and she gave the ski all 5’s out of 5 with the exception of a 4 for overall impression. She calls the ski “Super fun! Pretty surprised with this ski having never skied the brand before.” That Liberty feeling is definitely pretty rare and unique, especially in a ski this shape with its intended application.

In a somewhat saturated market for the best 88-90 mm underfoot all-mountain ski, there are a lot of heavy hitters. Some have a lot of metal, and some have none, and others have some metal placed in different spots. The shape varies a lot as well, and these Liberty Evolv 90 W’s have an interesting and unique way of building their version of the all-mountain crusher, and it manages to stand out in a very positive way.